The vital importance of prayer within the local church, arguing that it is often neglected in our busy lives. Using the example of the early church in Acts 12, which fervently prayed for Peter's release despite facing severe persecution and hardship, the message illustrates how persistent prayer can overcome seemingly insurmountable obstacles. The examples highlight the example of his own mother, a devoted prayer warrior whose prayers for his salvation were eventually answered. The sermon concludes by urging believers to be faithful and fervent in prayer, both individually and corporately, as a foundational element of Christian life and a powerful tool for God's work.
Restored with Diffio
Audio restored with Diffio. Diffio processed the original archive recording to reduce noise and produce a cleaner listening version; the original stays available.
Speech quality score (model-estimated, SCOREQ): before 2.59 → restored 4.64
Brother Larry did say tonight we want to look at the adoption of prayer. And I think in a lot of ways that prayer is being neglected. It's being neglected in our local churches and maybe even in our own private lives. It seems in these days we're so busy. We're a busy people. And we're busy in every part of the country. It used to be in New York and the big cities we were busy. But now we're busy in every part of the country, I think. And one of the things that is squeezed out is prayer. And prayer is such an important part of our Christian life. For many years, many of my years outside of Christ, I had a mother, I have a mother still alive in New Jersey, and she was a true prayer warrior.
And maybe in this audience tonight, there are women like that and men like that that pray for their grandchildren and pray for their children. and pray daily and pray often. And one night as I was lost and outside of Christ, I was out with some friends. We were drinking. I had gone to some bars and some parties. And it was a Friday or Saturday night. I don't remember which. And I came home late. Maybe it was two o'clock in the morning, one o'clock or so. And I came into the kitchen. And there was a green, you've seen those books, green composition notebook. kind you would buy for school. And there it was laying on the counter and there was a cup of coffee that was empty.
And apparently my mother had been up and she, very unlike her, but she forgot to put the book away and put the cup of coffee away. And I came down and I just decided to sit down at that table and I opened that book. Now I knew her little place where she kept it, but I never looked at it before. She kept it up on a cupboard. But it was laying there and I opened it up. And there were many, many pages. And my mother had a system of prayer. She listed names and needs and individuals and circumstances and she prayed for those things. And when it was answered, she circled it with her red pencil. When I looked through that, I saw my sister's name in there.
I saw other relatives there, those who were sick, those who were in need. But as I turned to some of the pages, there was my name. She was praying for my salvation over a lot of years. And it was just the very day, that day, the current list she was praying for, my name was on that list. And my name wasn't circled. You know, I think if I got out that prayer book today, because I know she still probably uses another prayer book, but if I was to open that prayer book, my name would be circled, I'm sure. because she was a praying person, praying Christian. And I'm so thankful. I told her a number of times in my life how I am thankful.
I am sure. I am sure that my salvation is an answer to her persistent and loving prayers. And so it's such an important thing that we are a praying people, not only individuals, but in the local church. And tonight I want to think about the local prayer meeting of the church. I'm going to exhort you, and I'm going to exhort myself, and I'm going to exhort Christians, that we might be be faithful and we might be fervent in our desire to pray within the local church. I'm going to ask you to turn in your Bibles to Acts chapter twelve. I think Acts chapter twelve was one of those beautiful passages where we have a unique glimpse into a prayer meeting. Very rare that we have a living glimpse of a prayer meeting, but we have one I think in Acts chapter twelve.
We have individuals, different personalities, different age groups. A situation that was so essential, was so burdensome, and gathered the whole church together to pray. I want to read a few verses, and tonight we want to look at this, and I trust your heart might be warmed as we heard about the Lord Jesus in song. Heart might be warmed to our beautiful Savior and how he is an answerer of prayer. He always answers prayer, doesn't he? Sometimes later, sometimes yes. But he always answers our prayers perfectly and best. Verse one of chapter twelve of the book of Acts.
Now about that time, Herod the king stretched forth his hands. This is Herod Agrippa II, the great grandson, the grandson rather, of Herod the Great. He stretched forth his hands to vex or to persecute certain of the church. And he killed James, the brother of John, with the sword. Scholars believe that this execution was a beheading with the sword. A vicious, cruel act by Herod Agrippa II. He killed the brother of John with the sword. And because he saw it pleased the Jews, he proceeded further to take Peter also.
And see in verse three, there's a parenthesis, very important parenthesis. Then were the days of unleavened bread, seven days long, concluding with Passover. All those days were holy days. And when he had apprehended him, he put him in prison. and delivered him to four quaternions of soldiers, four groups of four men. Sixteen men devoted to Peter because they remembered back in chapter five that he was delivered out of prison once previous. Now sixteen soldiers are devoted to keeping this Peter in prison. Intending to keep him, intending after the word should be Easter, I mean, I'm sorry, it says Easter and King James should be Passover to bring him forth to the people, to execute him publicly and show to the Jewish people, how King Herod is on their side, currying favor with the Jewish people.
Verse five, Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing by the church unto God for him. Down to verse twelve, when he had considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary, the mother of John. whose surname was marked where many were gathered together, pray. You know, it says in chapter eighteen of Luke, it says, men must always pray and think not. And you know, the word there, or ought or must, there's two Greek words for the word ought.
W.E. Vine says there's the ought of necessity and there's the ought of obligation. There in that chapter, chapter eighteen, verse one, it's the art of necessity. Men must. It's an essential thing. Men must and women must pray. Such an important part of the Christian life. God can lay hold of God's omnipotence. We can lay hold of God's omnipresence. We can be in lands that we may never see with our eyes, never step foot on with our feet. We can be in Thailand or Africa or Saudi Arabia through prayer and have God move as we pray for various needs. And here, this is what this church did.
A church by every account, a church that by human standards should have given up. They were so discouraged or could have been so discouraged by what was happening. It could have thrown their hands up and said, We're just going to turn our back on Christ and go the other way. Look at all the things that are happening to us. They didn't do that. You know, the church in the book of Acts, the New Testament church was a church of prayer. If you're to get your concordance out and look up the word prayer and go through each chapter of the book of Acts, you'll find every single chapter, at least once prayer is mentioned. Thirty-one times prayer is mentioned in the book of Acts. They prayed on beaches.
They prayed on rooftops. They prayed in prisons. They prayed wherever they went. It's a tremendous thing about Christians. Sometimes you travel. You're on a subway. You're on an airplane. You're somewhere. And you see an open Bible. You see a bowed head. And it's a tremendous testimony to see Christians praying for various needs. The book of Acts. The church in the book of Acts. The church in Jerusalem was a praying church. And a great testimony, I think, to us. A great example to us. This church could have been tremendously discouraged, but they were not. Let's look at some of the discouragement and learn a few lessons from the early part of why they should have been discouraged, but how they committed themselves to prayer.
Verse one says, now about that time. And so the question we should raise in our minds of what time was that? What time is he referring to? Well, it's a time of famine. The time of great need was a famine in Jerusalem. And Paul and Barnabas are sent with a gift from the church in Antioch because of the saints who had no food. The saints that were persecuted. Not only were their leaders taken, but there was hunger. There was poverty. There was tremendous physical need. Peter was taken. John was beheaded with the sword or James was beheaded with the sword. Their natural leaders were taken, the ones that led them to Christ, the ones that baptized them, the ones who cried with them and wept with them and counseled them and prayed for them.
Their leaders are taken one by one. There's great hunger, there's great persecution. And yet this church prays. You know, it's not the first time they received persecution in Jerusalem. It's actually the fifth time there was tremendous persecution by the authorities upon this New Testament church in Jerusalem. In chapter four, the apostles go out and they preach the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Sadducees come up and lay hands on them, bring them to the authorities. And the authorities threatened them and said, Do not speak any longer in this name. So I thought that was sufficient. But the very next chapter, chapter five in verse forty eight, they are out again before the temple preaching.
the gospel and the resurrection by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And now they're taken. And now it says they are beaten, probably beaten with rods by the Roman authorities. And it says they departed rejoicing that they could suffer for the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. The third time we find not only a threat, not only a person or a group of people beaten, the third time we find Stephen. even discussing the gospel with the men from the synagogue of the libertines, it says. And a great crowd gathered together and began to preach about Joseph, how he was persecuted and how he was put to death or thrown in a pit and left to die, and how Moses, the nation, turned against him.
and began to preach more and more. And the Jewish nation began to understand that he was speaking about them, how they had turned their backs on the Lord Jesus Christ. And they were a stiff-necked people. And began to stone and persecute Stephen. And the first martyr, who stoned in the death, looking steadfastly, he asked the Lord not to impute this and not to put this on their account. The third persecution was... death to one of the leaders of that New Testament church. The fourth persecution is in chapter eight. First, it was threatening. Then it was beating. Then it was death to a leader. Now in chapter eight, it says persecution came upon the whole church.
And the church at Jerusalem was scattered abroad, except for a small body of believers. They're all scattered. And as they were scattered, they preached the gospel, New Testament churches were formed. But now persecution came onto the whole church and it was scattered out of Jerusalem. And now in chapter twelve is the fifth wave of persecution upon this now little New Testament church. And now they meet in a home. A number of believers, we don't know how many there were. Now Peter is taken. Now James was killed. Now there's hunger, the fifth wave of persecution, poverty and persecution. And what do they do? Verse five, so beautifully. What a great testimony to us.
Is there persecution in my life not like it was in that New Testament church? Is there hunger? Is there needs or their physical needs? Not anything like this church suffered. By all accounts, they should have been discouraged. They should have thrown their hands up. Well, they didn't do that. Notice in verse five what they did do. Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made without ceasing by the church unto God for him. You know, there are so many small segments in that verse that are just so beautiful to look at them individually, but prayer. A church that should have been discouraged was praying.
A church that was persecuted was praying. A church with tremendous needs praying for someone else. a church without their chief leaders still praying, not discouraged, not giving up, not cast down, but praying and looking to the Lord Jesus Christ, looking by faith, fervently praying for the needs that were there. You know, it's interesting how long they prayed and how often and how frequently they prayed. I believe, as you go up to verses two, three, and four, I believe they prayed during these feast days day and night over a period of days.
Peter, it says, was taken sometimes into the Feast of Unleavened Bread, seven days. It may have been the second or third day. We don't know what day it was, but say it was the second or the third day. It was kept there for the rest of that week, three, four, possibly five days. And it says in verse five, the church, that they made prayer without ceasing into the church of God for him. We know that they prayed through the night. Because in the night when Peter was released, it says in verse twelve, they came to a house and they were praying in that house.
There was tremendous prayer, tremendous urgency. And so they prayed more and more and more. You know, once we can begin to see great urgency in people's lives, a family going through struggles with their children, tremendous possibly financial reversal, death of a loved one, tragedy with a child, divorce. separation and marriage. You get on our knees and we pray. You know, as we begin to see great knees, we begin to see them personally, begin to feel them. Remember just a little while ago in assembly, visiting an assembly, they mentioned two of the main leaders of the church, both in that same week lost their jobs.
And they both, one spoke up and said, please pray for me. I just lost my job through downsizing. And another brother stood up and said, I lost my job too. You know, that was the most beautiful prayer meeting. You can really feel the love. You could feel the burden that people had, the compassion people had for those two brothers. I'm sure when they left that prayer meeting, they felt prayed for. They felt the saints of lifting them up before the throne of God. You could hear it in the voices. You could hear it in the passion. And the same thing in this chapter here. Praying is a burden, urgency. The greater the need, the greater the urgency, the greater the passion, the greater the heartfelt, sincere prayer for those in that local church.
Remember a number of years ago, just about two years ago, I was at an up-and-look conference. I had a small seminar, and after it was over, a young man came up to me, walked to the front, and he said, do you know who I am? He was probably about twenty-seven years old. I said, no, I don't know who you are. He was beginning to bald a little bit. He was a little bit overweight. He said, my name is Chris. It's Chris Risdon. And when he said his name, I knew just who he was. He had just a little limp. And there was a little paralysis in his hand. And when Chris was ten years old, he was in the assembly that I was in.
He was at a birthday party. And after the birthday party, for whatever reason, I don't know, but he made a climb up a tree. And he climbed up to eventually eighteen feet in the air. He's on a branch, and that branch broke. And he came crashing eighteen feet down to the base of an oak tree, roots exposed above the ground, and his spinal column struck that with all that force. Boy of twelve years old, maybe a hundred and ten pounds. There was a number of broken bones, rushed to the hospital, and the doctor said that night, Chris would never walk again. He would be paralyzed for the rest of his life.
At that point, he was moving his eyes, did not have any feeling in his fingers or in his toes, and the doctor said he didn't believe that he would ever walk again. That was a Saturday afternoon, and the elders called around to everyone, every family in that assembly. And you know, as we were in that basement gathered together, We looked around, I don't think there was one family that wasn't there. I don't think there was one person that was the core of that assembly that was not there. We prayed for two hours for Chris Risdon, his young boy. His aunt was a missionary to France. His father was an elder. You know, in a couple of weeks, he began to move fingers and move hands and move legs.
Two years after that, He walked twenty miles in one of these sponsored walks, crop walks it was called. It was an amazing thing. And he came up to me at that conference and he said, I work for Chuck Colson, work in Washington, D.C. And he said, also he said, you know, I'm planning to go to seminary, planning to go to Capitol seminary. He said, I don't know what the Lord wants to do with my life. He said, but I want the Lord to use my life. You know, it's a tremendous thing to look back and think. that through your prayers, through prayers of people throughout the world even, people in France were praying, people in assemblies all through believers and assemblies all through New Jersey. And maybe other parts too are praying for Chris.
And to see him stand and move and walk and have the energy that he has and the heart desire that he has is a tremendous thing. To see and to think back in that small gathering in the basement of that chapel, to see a church urgently and passionately Praying for a young man in great, great need. That's what was happening here in verse five. Verse five, it says, Peter, therefore, was kept in prison. But prayer was made without ceasing by the church of God for him. You know, this is a church that could have been discouraged, could have turned their back on Christ, but they prayed. They prayed earnestly. They prayed fervently. They prayed through the week.
They prayed day and night. They prayed fervently. It's so striking to see in verse five, it says, but prayer was made. And then there's two little words. And those two little words without ceasing are really one word in the Greek. That Greek word is Atene. And it's the very same word that's used in the Gospel, the Gospel of Luke, when our Lord Jesus Christ was in the Garden of Gethsemane, where it says he went a little further and he got on his knees. And he prayed more earnestly. And he sweat, as it were, great drops of blood. The same picture. The same kind of prayers. Praying more earnestly. Praying fervently.
Praying sincerely. Praying from their hearts. Pouring their hearts out before God. They prayed day and night. They prayed throughout the week. They prayed fervently. They prayed as the Lord Jesus would pray in the Garden of Gethsemane. And then they're focused. Their eyes were upon the Lord. You know, sometimes I think when I read Scripture, how good it is that I'm not, I wasn't the one that was chosen to write Scripture. Sometimes I think I wouldn't write it that way. Those last words, prayer was made without ceasing by the church. And then it adds these four words, unto God for him. The focus was upon the Lord Jesus Christ, upon God in heaven.
Their focus, their strength, their resource, their power was the Lord Jesus Christ himself. Stories told about CH Spurgeon. A man visited the church in Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, wanted to know what the secret of Spurgeon's prayer was or his preaching power was. It was before the service and they took this man down to the basement. There were hundreds of people on their knees before the service praying for the preaching of CH's version, praying for lost souls, praying for salvation, praying for blessing. And he said, that's where the power is. That's the secret, praying.
It's the great resource that they had, praying unto God for him. You know, another thing that's so tremendous. that there was a burden by the whole church to pray for Peter. It says in verse five, Peter therefore was kept in prison, but prayer was made unceasing, without ceasing, by the church, by the ecclesia, the gathered out company. I'd like to think in verse five that it was the majority of the church. You go down to verse twelve. The first I read in the beginning. It says there, when he considered the thing, he came to the house of Mary. the mother of John, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together praying.
And I like to think it was a blessed, a wonderful spiritual time as they gathered together. And I think one of the best meetings of the church, the most enjoyable spiritual times I've had, I think, in my Christian life is to be gathered with sincere spiritual men and women and to be in a heartfelt spiritual prayer meeting. People pouring their hearts out, praying to God, praying by faith, praying earnestly, praying for great needs, just speaking to God from their hearts. Nothing like it. I remember a number of years ago, I spent six years as a missionary in Belgium, and I think my first year that I was there, I went to the Assembly Missionary Conference.
Every summer they had a conference in Germany. remember going to this conference and a lot of those missionaries are scattered in places doing church planting work as a single family in a village or in a city where there's not a known Christian and we gathered for prayer one evening we broke up for prayer and I remembered just being with maybe three or four people and one of the people that I was with was a housewife was a mother a wife of a missionary a missionary herself we began to pray And as we prayed just for five minutes or so, she began to cry. She began to really weep and began to cry. And we stopped the prayer meeting, our group, and we asked her.
We said, why are you crying? She said, you know, this is the first time in a year that I pray with another believer besides my two children and my husband. He said it's so special. It just brings tears. To pray, to hear other believers, other voices. Just lifting their voices up to the Lord and praying. You know, we have a tremendous privilege. I've never been in that situation where for a year I only prayed with the same two or three people for a whole year. It's the only people I could ever pray with. Never been in that situation. And I think when you're in that situation, you appreciate so, so much.
the tremendous privilege we have as believers. To gather with a company like this and other churches and pray with other believers who love the Lord Jesus, gather together and pray. Here, the church gathered together, prayed. It must have been a tremendous prayer meeting. But you know what I really like about this passage? There's a number of individuals in the passage. A number of people who are at this prayer meeting that we meet. We meet, first of all, down a little bit further. In verse thirteen, we meet a young girl who was at the prayer meeting. Her name was Rhoda. You know, Rhoda, if we were to make it very personal and translate into English even further, it's the name Rosie.
And that's what I like to think of. For a young girl, maybe thirteen or fourteen years old, she may have been a servant girl, slave girl, but I believe a believer too, Christian, at the prayer meeting. If she goes to the door, to open to Peter. And there's no backdoor lights in those days. She went to answer and she went to hearken. It says at the door. Want to hear. And Peter spoke probably in a low tone because of the persecution. That is Peter. And immediately she knew his voice. She knew his cadence. She knew the way he spoke. I think she loved that voice. I think she sat at the feet of Peter often and listened to him teach in that local church in Jerusalem.
I'd like to think she was at the prayer meeting often and heard him rise and lift his voice to God and pray. And immediately she knew who it was. And she says, it's Peter, Peter. And others laughed and scoffed and said, it can't be Peter. Although we're praying for Peter, it can't be Peter. We're praying for his release and his protection. But it can't be Peter. It must be his angel. And she goes back and she opens and it is Peter. And I wonder how she knew his voice, how she knows so fast it was Peter. I like to think as a young, thirteen or fourteen-year-old girl, she was frequently at those meetings. She was fully engaged.
She was alive with the love of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's a tremendous thing, I think, to see young people at a prayer meeting and even more so hearing young people pray, to have a young boy who's or twelve or thirteen or fourteen or fifteen, lift his voice or ask prayer for a friend, the salvation of a friend at school or a neighbor or a classmate or a mother of a friend, to hear them lift their voices and pray, to see them engaged, to see them alive with the needs of the local church. It's a tremendous thing to see that. To see young people spiritually interested in spiritual things and being at that prayer meeting and praying and thinking and hearing.
and just enjoying the things of God at a prayer meeting. Now I was saying about our kids, my son and my daughter will be baptized soon. As they asked to be baptized, I said, you know, it means when we're baptized, it means to follow the Lord. And it means when you are baptized that you need to come and be a part of that prayer meeting. And not just be a part of it, not just be there present, bodily, but you need to be engaged. You can't be reading a book. You can't be coloring. You can't be drawing a picture in a piece of paper. You need to be listening. You need to maybe even silently be praying yourself.
You're part of the church. You're following the Lord. You're an example. And to be baptized doesn't mean just to go through the motions like other children, but it means you're part of the church. Part of it needs to be engaged. My wife told me when she was a young girl, her parents were faithful Christians. never brought her to the prayer meeting. She did homework and she had to get up early the next morning and she stayed home as the parents went to the prayer meeting. And I always thought to myself, one of the things my parents did, they brought me. I was at every meeting of the assembly, whether I liked it or not, I was there. And you know, later on, that's how I appreciated it. I try to do the same thing.
I hope my children appreciate it. I don't know if they will or if they do. I often think of what James Domson once said to a mother who called in She said, I was reading Proverbs thirty-one and it says, your children will rise up and call you blessed. And she complained and she said, you know, all my children do. She said, they just rise up. He said, when will they call me blessed? And she said, he said, I have a very wise name. He said, you just wait when they're older. They're going to thank you for doing things like that, bringing them to the prayer meeting, disciplining them, correcting them, guiding them, showing them what's right and wrong. What I pray for my children is that when they grow up, they just don't become Christians.
I hope they become Christians, and I pray for that. But I want them to love the Lord Jesus with all their hearts. I want them to be fully engaged. I want them to be leaders. I want them to really make an impact upon their friends and their neighbors and kids they know. And that's what this young girl was doing, I think. At that prayer meeting, a testimony, an example. But something else I think we have here. We have a young man. The young man's name is John Mark. And we meet him in verse twelve, too. It says, that came to the house of Mary, who's the mother of John, whose name was, whose surname was Mark, where many were gathered together to pray.
John Mark was there. It was in his home. It was a day and night, all night, and throughout the week prayer meeting. I believe they stayed there, they slept there, they ate there. They lived there for those days. I don't know how many people it was. We don't know. But we know it's in that house. And I like to think that John Mark was a servant. He fed them and served food. He gave his bed. He provided other beds. Whatever it was, he was hospitable. He was faithful. He prayed whether it be silently or audibly, I don't know, but I believe he got on his knees and he was an example in prayer. He was a young man too, maybe sixteen or seventeen or eighteen, a little older than Rosie was, but a young man, again at the prayer meeting.
And there was something that we see, I think, in young men and men and women, we see spiritual qualities in a prayer meeting. I don't believe they ever preached. I don't believe he ever preached the gospel in the open air. They never saw that. But there was something in the prayer meeting, the spiritual dynamics of the prayer meeting that the leader saw. Just turn with me for a moment to verse twenty five. The very last verse of chapter twelve. It says, and Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem. And when they had fulfilled their ministry, which was bringing money and resources to this church during famine time and to be sovereignly God, bringing them at this time where Peter and James had taken, Barbus and Paul come.
What encouragement they were. They were at that prayer meeting too. But it says when they returned, what did they do? They just waved goodbye? No. They did something very unique. They said, we want to take John Mark with us. Why was that? Why did they want to take John Mark with them? He was a relative of Barnabas. That's true. But why did they want to take him? I believe they saw something in him during those days of prayer meetings. I don't know if they saw him studying the Bible. I don't know if they ever heard him preach. I don't know if they ever saw him in the open ear. I don't know what they saw.
I think primarily they saw qualities of this young man in a prayer meeting. They saw his faithfulness. They saw his spirituality. They saw his love for Christ. They saw the way he served and used his possessions for the body of Christ. They saw those qualities. And I like to think they heard him pray. I like to think one of the main reasons they said, we want you to come with us. Because they heard him pray. Maybe they heard his love for other believers. Maybe you heard him pray for Peter, his love for leaders. I'm not sure what he prayed for, but I think there was faith in his voice and there was sincerity in his voice, the love for Christ in his voice, the love for the body of Christ.
As he prayed, there was faithfulness, there was service, there was witness, there were all those wonderful qualities, grace and mercy. And they said, we want to take him with us. Look how he prays. Look how he carries himself. Look at the qualities he has. He's suitable for other things because we've seen qualities such as this in a prayer meeting. You know, sometimes you meet young men and they want to preach. Or you meet young men and they want to be elders. Or you meet young men and they want to go maybe for a short term or even longer term over to the mission field. They'll never come to the prayer meeting.
And I wonder sometimes if that should be a prerequisite. I wonder if that should be something that we should talk to our young people, not to discourage them. I'm all against discouraging young people from serving the Lord. But I think to encourage them and say, this is one of the qualities, this is one of the foundation of qualities a servant of God has. It should be at the prayer meeting. Not only being there, but praying, being faithful, having a love for the body of Christ. It's a tremendous thing to be there. And that's what happens here. One last thing as our time is fleeting here, as Peter comes to the gate, comes to the gate and Rhoda answers it, Rosie answers the door, and they say, it can't be Peter, it must be his angels, although we're praying for him, it can't be him.
It must be somebody else. Although we're praying, we're praying fervently, we're praying night and day, we're praying through the night. And I wonder to myself as I've read this, and maybe you have your own ideas. And I know when I've said, share with others how I feel about this passage, there's other ideas. And I grant that fully. But I like to think this. The reason why they continued on praying despite the doubt in some was because Paul and Barnabas were there. Paul was a prayer warrior. I think they may have wanted to give up. I think they might want to give in. and say, oh, look, another day is past.
Another day is past. We've heard that Herod wants to bring them out at Passover, after Passover, and publicly execute Peter. What good is it? Remember James. Look how he was killed. Look at Stephen. Look at the famine. Look at all that's happened. How can God still be with us? All these things are against us. Let's just give up and go home. And I can see Paul there. Thirteen times it is said of Paul in the New Testament, prays, prayed without ceasing. Pray always. I think that's the kind of person he was. Always prayed. Prayed without ceasing. And when they wanted to give up, he was there. When they wanted to go home, he said, no, we've got to pray.
And I think in local assemblies, we need those kind of people. We need people who say to others, you know, we had a wonderful prayer meeting. There's some great needs, great answers to prayer. Why don't I pick you up next week or why don't you come? Here's a prayer list or here's what we've been praying for in any way to encourage the body of Christ to pray more. To have times in your own house, maybe on a Saturday, and just invite them over and pray at your house. And so there's need, women, to get together over coffee or a time in the morning sometime and just pray and get together. The sisters, the younger, the young people, whoever it is. Having a number of people in the assemblies, let's get together and let's pray.
I think revival, I think growth, I think a church that's characterized by prayer, by gospel preaching, by worship, by love for Christ, all those things. But one of the essentials, one of the foundational things, one of the real pillars, is a church that prays, a local church that has a real burden to pray. And I trust that you're a church like that. We want to be in our little area. We want to be that way. We've talked about it over and over again. And we've said to ourselves, let's begin at the early stages of this assembly. And let's do a number of things. Let's have time set aside on other days and pray. Let's pray throughout the evening Bible studies. We have Bible study Wednesdays. We pray a portion of that once a month.
We devote all of it to prayer. Let's pray as much as we can. Give out prayer lists and talk to others. about being a praying people. It's a tremendous thing to pray for others. And as we pray for others, the Lord changes us, doesn't he? It changes our hearts and changes our direction, changes our ambition, changes our thoughts, gives us greater energy. It transforms our lives. So I trust that we might be that kind of people, a praying people, that would honor the Lord. Let's close in prayer. Our Heavenly Father, we thank you for our time tonight. We thank you, Father, that you've called us, called us to pray, that we as men and women ought not to faint, but to pray always.
We thank you for men like Paul and Barnabas, real praying people, praying leaders. And Father, help us to be that kind of people. Help us to be local churches that are praying churches, characterized by prayer. And so, Father, we pray for this as this. In Jesus' name, Number four hundred and four. Four oh four for our closing hymn. Certainly this is not necessarily a prayer, but it should be of our hearts. Lord, teach me your ways. Church moves upon its knees. May all our hearts be spoken to.
There's nothing greater to see on Wednesday when we gather for prayer. We gather sincerely. that the body of Christ comes and we lift up those burdens and petitions of our hearts and pray, teach me thy way, O Lord, and it is the way of prayer. Number four, just the first verse for our closing speech.